League of Legends Worlds 2022: Which two teams will make it to the Finals?

After three weeks of intense competition, the 2022 League of Legends (LoL) World Championship is drawing closer to an end.

Only four hopefuls remain out of the 24 teams that started the tournament, and they will be flying to Atlanta, Georgia to battle for a coveted spot in the grand finals this weekend.

Out of this year's final four teams, three teams are from the LoL Korea Championship (LCK) and only one is from the China's LoL Pro League (LPL).

Will this be the year that the LCK finally comes out on top again? Or will the only remaining LPL team keep the Summoner's Cup in China?

Before the weekend comes, let’s take a look at each matchup and what their win conditions and chances are to make it to the final stage of Worlds 2022:

T1 vs JD Gaming

T1 and JD Gaming (JDG) have never played against each other before, but it’s like fate that arguably the two strongest teams in the competition are facing off in the semifinals.

With a 6-1 record and the top seed from Group B, JDG advanced to the quarterfinals having lost only one group stage game to DWG KIA. They eventually found revenge and won the tiebreaker game to claim their group's top seed.

In contrast, T1 finished first in Group A with a 5-1 record, eliminating the need for a tiebreaker game and ensuring they would advance to the playoffs. Their lone defeat came in Week 1 against Fnatic.

Both teams rocked the quarterfinals. JDG swept Rogue, the last hope of the West, 3-0 in dominant fashion. Meanwhile, T1 exacted revenge against international rivals and 2022 Mid-Season Invitational Champions Royal Never Give Up (RNG), who had previously beaten them at the MSI grand finals in front of their home crowd.

T1 now seem to have fully bounced back from their less-than-stellar Summer season. While Lee “Gumayusi” Min-heyong and Ryu “Keria” Minsook put on mediocre performances in the LCK this Summer, they have shown a return to form at Worlds.

The duo has been key in T1 stomping the competition multiple times in the Group Stage and the quarterfinals. Most of Gumayusi’s games were deathless except for their match against Fnatic and the quarterfinals.

T1's jungler, Mun "Oner" Hyeon-jun, has also made himself more proactive in matchups, which helped their team reach the last stages of Worlds this year.

That said, T1’s advantage lies in the bot lane matchup against JDG, so they must take the opportunity to snowball their team’s ADC and support in the laning phase. T1 will have to put Gumayusi on a hypercarry pick and Keria on a support champion with agency for them to succeed and make a difference in the series.

In the same way, they also need to think about Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok’s champions in the mid lane and put him on a champion where he can definitely set up his team for success, all while having the ability to carry on his own too.

On top of that, while their team boasts one of the best and most consistent top laners in the World in Choi “Zeus” Woo-je, they must be careful that he doesn’t lose in the drafting stage and be wary of JDG’s monstrous top laner in Bai “369” Jia-Hao in the laning phase.

T1’s failure in the LCK Summer Finals was putting Zeus on Ornn duty, significantly limiting how he could impact the latter stages of the game. Finally, T1 needs to be aware of the movements of the most formidable jungler in the World, Seo “Kanavi” Jin-hyeok, who is part of JDG.

If T1 can exploit the bottom lane and take care of their top lane, they have a good chance of making it to the grand finals. They also need to be very careful with their drafts since this has been a major point of weakness in the past.

On the other hand, JDG’s strength is in their jungle. We have yet to see how 369 and Zeus will fare against each other, but with the team’s Seo "Kanavi" Jin-hyeok assisting 369 from the jungle, the LPL summer champions have a slight advantage in the top lane matchup.

In the jungle, Kanavi’s stats are far superior to T1’s Oner, who only surpasses him in KDA. This means that even if T1’s bot lane does well, if Kanavi can effectively rotate around the map and take care of other lanes, he will be the one who can carry JDG through to the finals.

JDG would need to focus on Kanavi having the advantage across the map and perhaps exploit the top lane, where he and 369 can make life hell for Zeus. Hopefully, this can compensate for their bot lane mismatch and give them a shot to secure a slot into the grand finals.

Gen.G vs DRX

The other semifinals encounter between Gen.G and DRX features a clash between two powerhouses of the LCK that have performed excellently in Worlds thus far.

In the Group stage, Gen.G initially dropped a game to RNG but quickly recovered, dominating the rest of the matches in Group D and winning the tiebreaker against RNG to become the group’s first seed.

Gen.G then had to outlast long-time rivals DAMWON KIA Gaming in a gruelling best-of-five quarterfinal that tested their strategy, endurance, and resolve. Eventually, the LCK Champions outlasted the 2020 World champions to make it to the semis.

On the other hand, DRX’s Worlds journey started from the Play-ins in Mexico, where they secured a slot into Groups after a dominant 5-0 run in Group B. Then, the team defied expectations in the Group Stage, where they unexpectedly won against Rogue in a tiebreaker to take the first seed after finishing 4-2.

DRX defied expectations once again when they knocked out defending champions EDward Gaming after a hard-fought 3-2 slugfest.

With all that being said, Gen.G, by virtue of being the LCK first seed and Summer champions, are looking like a shoe-in for this semis matchup.

One of DRX's biggest strengths lies in their mid lane with Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon, who rarely loses in the laning phase and records an impossibly high CS lead in each game. However, the bot lane duo is also Gen.G’s ace up their sleeve, with Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk and Son “Lehends” Si-woo performing really well on the World stage.

Gen.G’s Choi “Doran” Hyeon-joon needs to catch up with his teammates to survive alone in the top lane so that their jungler, Han “Peanut” Wang-ho, can scale better and matter more in team fights. The bot lane carry of DRX is also a pretty tough matchup, so Peanut should not have to be stuck in one lane to keep their team ahead of the competition.

They also need to be careful not to make blind picks as they did in the first round of the Group stage. Gen.G can secure a slot in the grand finals if these things are considered during the game.

As for DRX, we’ll be honest if we don’t say that we don’t expect them to win against Gen.G since most of Gen.G’s team members have been performing better in all lanes, except the bot lane where Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu shines brightly.

However, defying expectations is the team’s theme throughout Worlds, so we won’t be surprised if they pull off another upset against the LCK Summer Champions.

Aside from Deft, first-timer Kim “Zeka” Geon-woo has been impressive so far, especially in the quarterfinals, so if he keeps that form, he’ll be able to make and win trades against Chovy in the mid lane.

The last ace that DRX has is their mental fortitude and resilience. DRX showed such strength in their quarterfinal match against 2021 World Champions EDG. Despite playing from behind, we saw multiple team members trying to find small windows of opportunity to open up EDG’s base and take the Nexus.

In their second game of the series, Deft nearly had the Nexus in his eyes. Still, the Nexus refused to fall with just 119 health remaining, and after an inhibitor turret respawned and stopped Deft’s siege, EDG eventually flipped the script and won the game a couple of seconds later.

Not being tilted after that heartbreak and even doing a reverse sweep against last year’s World champion takes a lot of mental and emotional strength and discipline and is admirable.

If Deft and Zeka can show up as they did in the past matches, and if the rest of the members believe in themselves, like jungler Hong “Pyosik” Chang-hyeon said he did in the last three games of the quarterfinals, they might just do the impossible again and topple another giant in Gen.G to make it to the grand finals.

The Worlds semifinals will begin on Sunday morning (30 October) at 5:00 A.M., Singapore time, and will conclude on Monday (31 October).

You can catch the action in Worlds 2022 on the official LoL YouTube and Twitch channels and the LoL esports page.

Anna is a freelance writer and photographer. She is a gamer who loves RPGs and platformers, and is a League of Legends geek. She's also a food enthusiast who loves a good cup of black coffee.

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